


all's well that ends well (to end up with you)

by upriserseven



Category: Teenage Bounty Hunters (TV)
Genre: April Centric, F/F, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-16 03:40:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29447166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/upriserseven/pseuds/upriserseven
Summary: She makes mostly simple, generic cards. Basically the same for everybody. If she puts a little more effort into Adele’s, it’s not something she really thinks about at the time.(or, Valentine's Day through the years for April Stevens.)
Relationships: April Stevens/Sterling Wesley
Comments: 12
Kudos: 81





	all's well that ends well (to end up with you)

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly friends I have been going Thru It personally and I thought that maybe writing something would be a nice distraction. Seeing as I love an April-centric through-the-years fic, this seemed like the only logical conclusion.
> 
> Anyway April Stevens is a secret romantic, fight me.
> 
> Thank you once again to Ms Swift for the title.

Every year, April is forced to make Valentines for every one of her classmates. It’s a tradition she despises, but she’s in second grade and she just got a new set of markers, so at least she’ll get to use those. She makes mostly simple, generic cards. Basically the same for everybody. If she puts a little more effort into Adele’s, it’s not something she really thinks about at the time. 

Most of her class lack April’s creativity, and she plans to throw their cards in the trash as soon as she gets home this afternoon. April’s pretty sure that her Daddy doesn’t like class Valentines, he said something about girls sending cards to girls and boys sending them to boys. She doesn’t like them either, but not for the same reason. She actually thinks that maybe if she had to choose, she’d rather only send them to the other girls in her class. That’s just because most of the boys are really annoying though. She doesn’t say any of this aloud. 

April draws flowers and stars on most of the cards, not wanting to send hearts to anyone. She does put a little heart inside Adele’s card, but only next to where she signs her name. Adele’s her best friend, so it makes sense that she should get something special. (Adele doesn’t put a heart in April’s card, but she does write “you’re my best ever friend!” so that’s totally acceptable.)

April shoves the cards she received from her classmates haphazardly into her backpack, save one. She places the card from Adele into her binder, hoping to keep it safe so that she can put it away nicely when gets home. 

Daddy gets home late that night, really late. April’s brushing her teeth when she hears the door. She doesn’t know for sure, but she thinks maybe her mom is a little disappointed. She was probably hoping for flowers or jewellery or the things that grown-ups are supposed to give each other on Valentine’s Day, not to spend the evening alone with April and for her husband to come home long after dinner.

There’s a heart-shaped box of chocolates on the kitchen counter the next morning, and a card that April sneaks a look at. There’s nothing written inside, just “Love, John”. April put more effort into that even with her least favourite classmates. Daddy is always stressed though, especially right now, and April thinks it must be hard to remember things like Valentine’s Day when you’re so busy. She’s sure that when she’s grown-up, and she’s married or whatever, she’ll be so busy sometimes that she’ll forget. 

—————

April doesn’t put any effort at all into Valentines for the next few years. In third grade, with Adele long gone, no new best friend in her place, and this nagging feeling that something about her relationship with Adele was… unusual, she takes a leaf out of her father’s book and simply writes each person’s name and “From, April”. Every card is almost identical, a detailed flower on the front with “Happy Valentine’s Day” in her best bubble writing. 

When she’s in fourth grade, April’s Daddy gives her a small bouquet too, a miniature version of the one he gives to her mother. It’s pretty, and she appreciates the gesture, but April’s struck for a moment by the thought of being an adult, of someone giving her flowers, of exchanging cards with someone she loves. She’s still young, so she tries not to think or worry about it much, and that feeling inside her chest (the one she’s had since Adele left) tells her not to dwell on it for too long. 

She has a new friend, not quite a best friend the way Adele was, but her best friend in the class. She doesn’t sign a heart next to her name this time, but she does try harder with that card than any of the others.

It doesn’t mean anything. It’s fine. It’s nothing to worry about. 

————

Sterling goes all out with her cards, in a way that April wants to find annoying, but it actually makes her smile. There’s glitter all over her desk, her uniform, her face. All over April, too. All of the cards Sterling makes are covered in hearts and have jokes or poems inside them. The glitter, though, seems to be reserved for just three people. (Which is, frankly, terrifying. Sterling has created a small mountain of glitter for just _three_ cards. God help the backpacks of the recipients.) 

She makes an effort, for Sterling. More of an effort than she did even for Adele, but mostly because she knows that one of those glittery monstrosities is probably for _her_. One is for Blair, of course, which means that the third is most likely for Luke. Which, okay, Luke is technically Sterling’s boyfriend now, so that makes sense. 

Sterling’s Valentine enthusiasm is the only reason April tries so hard. The note inside is personal, but not too much. She’s not worried, not really, that Sterling would think it was intense or weird, but she remembers her mother’s face when she was speaking to Mrs. Meisner on the phone, remembers the way her father looked at her the next day, and she keeps it short and sweet. She does sign a heart next to her name, but even then it takes a few moments for her to work up the courage. 

It’s not like it’s a competition, but her card has much, much more glitter than Luke’s. She doesn’t want to, but she glances over Luke’s shoulder and the note inside looks a lot shorter than hers, too. It’s not a competition, but April still feels, for a brief selfish second, like she’s winning. 

The card she gets from Blair is surprisingly thoughtful, and includes an apology for Sterling’s love of glitter, which makes April laugh. Luke clearly feels uncomfortable about having to give a card to his girlfriend’s best friend, but Sterling insists that the whole thing is “so cute!” while April and Blair share a fond eye roll behind her back. 

April will throw most of these away as soon as she gets home, she always does. Sterling’s will go in the box under her bed and infect the rest of its contents with sparkle. There’s two bouquets of roses in the kitchen when she gets home, and her mother is wearing a necklace that April doesn’t think she’s seen before, so it must be new. Tomorrow, she has a sleepover at Sterling and Blair’s, and Sterling is excited to watch parent-approved, age-appropriate romantic films that April has no interest in at all. 

She thinks maybe she sees the appeal of Valentine’s Day though, if she gets to spend it like this. 

—————

Thankfully, their teachers have finally realized that nobody wants to make a Valentine for everyone in their class, so April no longer has to participate in one of her least favourite rituals. Most of them have only just hit their teens, but the words boyfriend and girlfriend are still thrown around just a little too often. 

April doesn’t sit near Sterling in any of her classes anymore, but she does sit next to Luke in English, which means she still ends up covered in glitter. It’s not as appealing as it used to be. He’s beaming, but he seems to stop when he notices April looking over at him. It makes her want to yell, but maybe not at him. It’s not Luke’s fault that his girlfriend is fake and two-faced. He should be allowed to enjoy a card from a girl who is probably too old to still be hand-making them.

There’s a small bouquet waiting for her, as usual, and she’s staying home alone this evening while her parents go out to dinner. 

By this point, April knows that her Valentine’s Days as an adult will not be spent with a husband or boyfriend, is just about accepting to herself that she’ll either be alone or she’ll have the courage to have a girlfriend. At least, she hopes she’ll be brave enough one day. She thinks about flowers and chocolates, corny rom-coms and nice dinners, about why it can’t just be easy for her.

There’s glitter in her hair, somehow. She washes it out and doesn’t think about the girl responsible. 

—————

Despite the fact that they haven’t been forced to make 20+ Valentines for a few years now, Hannah B still insists on giving out cards, chocolates and homemade cookies to “all of her favourite people”, which is a list so long it baffles April. It also somehow includes Sterling (and Blair, of course, because Hannah is worried that Blair would be offended if Sterling got one and she didn’t.) 

April stays at her table with Ezequiel, watching while Hannah dishes out Valentine’s treats like a real life Cupid, and looks away the second she sees Sterling’s bright smile. 

She’s had a few small… situations over the years. None as fiercely intense as Adele, and none that ended as badly as Sterling. Thankfully most of them nowhere near Valentine’s Day. She’s fifteen now, not as young or naive as the girl who signed her name with a heart to a girl who was nothing more than a friend, but she’s determined to never deal with a crush at this time of year again. Not that she had a crush on Sterling. She absolutely did not, just a misguided trust and a brief friendship. Regardless, never again. 

In fact, April thinks that she’s now organized her thoughts enough that she can put a stop to crushes altogether. It’s not that hard, actually. She’ll still have _celebrity_ crushes, of course, but liking Taylor Swift or Daisy Ridley isn’t any kind of real threat to her daily life. April has a completely foolproof plan, a solid way to essentially ignore teenage hormones and not worry at all about being gay until she’s in college, at least. She’s fine with being gay, actually, decided a long time ago it was okay. But she can’t afford to be distracted if she wants to succeed. 

————

It should’ve been a completely foolproof plan. Somehow, it isn’t. 

————

Sterling’s been looking at her a lot lately. Staring, really. April will just be sitting, in class or at lunch or sometimes even in church, and she can feel eyes on her. She always looks up just in time to find Sterling trying to look away. It’s equal parts unsettling and comforting. 

It’s new, though. The staring. Before this was the avoidance, and it’s amazing they even got there from the intense fight stage. Before that was what April assumes is a somewhat typical post break-up tension. (She feels silly, really, calling it a break-up. Break-up implies relationship, which April isn’t sure is a term that could be applied to two days of making out in secret. Still, she’s not sure what else to call it, so she has no choice but to stick with break-up.)

So now, Sterling looks at her. April tries not to look back, but she’s been trying so, so hard not to think about Sterling and it’s exhausting. Life is hard enough, probably, so as long as she doesn’t let it disrupt her plans or her work, she’s allowed to look at Sterling sometimes, right? Or at least enjoy the knowledge that she’s being looked at. 

It doesn’t even occur to April, that it’s Valentines Day. She doesn’t think about it. There’s no bouquets or cards in the kitchen, with John long gone from their family home. Hannah B is currently enamoured with a boy from the club, and she abandons her usual tradition of spoiling April and Ezequiel. It sneaks up on her, is the point. She walks into school and finds little red hearts taped to people’s lockers and for a split second, she considers turning around and just leaving. She would never actually miss school without good reason, of course, but she’s tempted. 

That’s probably why she doesn’t even notice the envelope in her locker immediately. It’s white, not red, and it’s small and subtle. But April knows what it is. She doesn’t look around, doesn’t want to draw any attention to herself at all, but she’s pretty sure that Sterling is somewhere in these halls, looking. It shouldn’t thrill her, but it does. 

She’s not stupid enough to open it in at school, so it sits in the zipped compartment of her bag all day. Sterling is still, still, looking, and April wants to put her at ease, say that she simply hasn’t opened it yet, but she’s not sure if acknowledging whatever this is might break it. She resists the urge to sneak out to her car at lunch, but only because Ezequiel keeps giving her these knowing looks and she refuses to let him be right. 

At 3:45pm, April sits in her car, midway between the school and her house, in the parking lot of a Starbucks. She buys something in the drive-thru, unwilling to sit there for what could be quite a while without having actually made a purchase. She takes four deep breaths and carefully opens the envelope, making sure not to tear it (because, she thinks, it needs to be intact so that she can put the card back inside and keep this hidden better, if needs be). It’s a plain white card, with a simple heart on the front - red, with a gold metallic outline that April traces with her finger. Written inside is just _A - S_ , with a little heart scribbled after the S. April wonders if Sterling deliberated over the heart or not, if she wrote it with confidence and zero question or if it took her five minutes to do something so bold. 

The card isn’t the main event, though. There’s a letter tucked inside, neatly folded. 

She reads it six times, start to finish. Sterling has deliberately avoided anything too incriminating, and April is surprised by how moving she finds this effort. John may not be in the house anymore, but April still isn’t ready to proudly declare anything about that part of herself to the world, and she can’t be sure how her mother would react. Plus, she’d be lying if she said that getting a letter from a girl (from _Sterling_ ) filled with secret codes and allusions to the something that lies between them wasn’t extremely exciting to her. 

She reads it over and over, taking small pleasure in the way that Sterling’s handwriting is familiar, in the way it looks when Sterling writes “we”. Commits the loops and swirls to memory. April tries not to cry on to the letter itself, worried about damaging delicate paper that she knows she wants to keep, but she reads Sterling’s words, about honesty and mistakes and feelings and friendship. She notes that Sterling differentiates, albeit subtly, between friendship and Friendship. That capital F makes April’s breath catch, makes her chest hurt, makes her want to call Sterling and tell her that everything is absolutely fine and they should throw caution to the wind and makes her want to finally, finally admit to herself that being with Sterling is all she wants. 

She thinks about Valentines, the way she used to fantasize about a future where she’d give flowers and chocolates and embrace cheesiness and romance. She knows she’s only sixteen, knows that the chances of her staying with her first love forever are slim, but she tries to place Sterling in all of those future scenarios and it feels so right, so warm that April gives up on any decorum she was trying to maintain and just sobs into her hot chocolate. 

————

It’s rare that Sterling is awake before April. Really, really rare. She’s only actually seen this on Christmas and her birthday so far, so when she wakes up on their first Valentine’s Day since moving in together, she’s confused by the empty space next to her. Until she hears humming from the kitchen. The fact that this is their fourth year as an official couple apparently doesn’t lessen Sterling’s desire to go extremely overboard, and April’s heart swells at the sight of balloons and roses and chocolates filling their living room. Not for the first time, she’s overwhelmed by just how much she loves Sterling Wesley. 

“I went to bed after you last night, how did you even manage this?”

“Morning, beautiful!” There’s a coffee passed her way, a card on the counter waiting for her, and what look like heart shaped pancakes being poorly flipped at the stove. “I had help.” 

“Blair?”

“I owe her. I don’t think she even knew clocks had a 5am before today.” 

There’s a frame on their wall, a thing that Blair has mocked them tirelessly for. It holds two twelve year old cards, one still covered in glitter after all these years, and a much plainer, much more sensible card next to it. There’s a shoebox under their ( _their_ ) bed that holds that first letter, and a few others. There’s still a Valentine from Adele Meisner in there, which Sterling insists April should keep, and a small tattered teddy bear that Luke bought in sixth grade. 

April thinks about being a kid, about thinking of Valentine’s as an obligation, even about her suspicion that when she’s grown up and busy she might sometimes forget. Truthfully, she still might. She’s still young and she still has plenty of years ahead of her where February 14th won’t feel like one of the most important days of the year. 

But Sterling is in front her, beaming as she cuts strawberries into hearts and draws a terrible smiley face on April’s pancake in whipped cream. Sterling is singing Love Story in the kitchen and crying when she reads the note inside April’s card, she’s kissing April’s whole face and dancing in the kitchen and somehow still, now, all these years later, getting glitter on everything around her. She wants to make this happen every day, not just Valentines or Christmas or birthdays and anniversaries. She wants to sign every card with a heart.

**Author's Note:**

> come yell with me on twitter: @aprilphtevens / tumblr: dclarkadmin


End file.
